Xions Appearance?

[Nayru's Love]

I just view them as one and the same. To develop and heart and mindset of your own you need such bonds and experiences.

Fair enough.

Roxas, too, looks like Ventus because of the connection between Ventus and Sora, and he was born with Sora as his medium. Going by your theory, shouldn't Roxas have had black hair as well?

Considering the close relation between Sora's and Ven's hearts at the time of Roxas' birth and also the same but not as close relation after Vanitas' birth, it's plausible for Roxas to share a much stronger bond with Ven than Vanitas did with Sora.

Addendum: If you look closely, Roxas isn't a complete clone of Ventus. Roxas' brown eyebrows match Sora's instead of Ventus', which are blonde.

Based off of concept art, or models?

 

[Solo]

Considering the close relation between Sora's and Ven's hearts at the time of Roxas' birth and also the same but not as close relation after Vanitas' birth, it's plausible for Roxas to share a much stronger bond with Ven than Vanitas did with Sora.

Wouldn't this imply that Xion's blackhairedness might be due to the weakness of bond between Sora and Kairi? We know their bond is very strong, though, since they are the most important person to each other. Or rather, might it be due to the fact that Xion captured those memories from Roxas instead of straight from Sora himself?

Based off of concept art, or models?

Models. Check these out:

Spoiler Show

Spoiler Show

 

[Nayru's Love]

Or rather, might it be due to the fact that Xion captured those memories from Roxas instead of straight from Sora himself?

This is the explanation I'm leaning towards, especially since it can also loosely apply to Vanitas' black hair.

This is how Roxas sees her, but not through his own memories.

Models. Check these out:

Spoiler Show

Spoiler Show

Huh, that's odd. Wonder what the point of that was :v

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Huh, that's odd. Wonder what the point of that was :v

To add a real physical difference between them perhaps?

But much more probable is that it is to show that Roxas' main origin is still from Sora. He was born from Sora's heart, being his Nobody and not Ven's.
Having Ven's hairstyle and color but Sora's brown eyebrows is practically a visual reminder that Roxas was created as a hybrid between the two.

 

[The_Echo]

snip

I'm sure I'm way too late to the party, especially seeing Sephiroth in here.

But here's the basic rundown.

Xion was created with Sora's memories of Kairi. Those are not the basis for her looks, as she was initially faceless.

Her appearance depends upon who's viewing her and their memories related to Sora. This is why Xigbar sees her as Ventus. This is also why, initially, Roxas only saw Xion with her hood obscuring her face; he didn't have any memories to project upon her.

Xion has her own face to Roxas (and later Axel) because she became her own person in the same way Roxas became someone entirely removed from both Sora and Ventus. The face Roxas sees is the one she developed for herself as her personality took shape and (we can assume) her heart started budding.

 

[Ruran]

As for Roxas and Ven's appearance, this probably sounds weird, but I actually consider the in game models secondary canon to the hand drawn renders because Nomura draws them himself, so I think that's how he "truly imagens" them. The in game models are made by the other staff who interpret Nomura's work and while they mostly look the same, there are some key artistic differences here and there. One of them being Roxas and Ven's eyebrows. Roxas's eyebrows are only ever brown in game. If there's an in universe reason for it I'd go with him having a direct connection to Sora since he has brown hair. Otherwise, I think it's just so whomever is making the models can more easily tell them apart without making an overt difference. When making computer generated models, it's pretty common to make them naked first then layer the clothes on. Visually, it's easy to tell the difference between Roxas and Ven when they're dressed, but in the process of making their models I can imagine it can get tricky (though I suppose it doesn't matter much in the long run).

I can buy that the initial reason Xion has black hair is because Kanemaki requested it, but Nomura has mentioned several times that he's a very flexible person when it comes to the story, so it may be a matter of him making it work with the plot (if there's anything to Xion's, and by extension, Vanitas's black hair outside of artistic license). Minus Data!Kairi, all the "Kairi clones" are color coded any way, so a unique color would've been chosen for her anyway, black specifically may have been chosen just because it had been suggested.

As for why Xion (and Vanitas) have black hair in universe?

...*shrugs*

I'm going to be that person who says that I don't think there's really anything behind it. Symbolically, black stands for mystery, the unknown, evil, things of that nature. Which suit Xion and Vanitas nicely. Looking at Vanitas's design, I think for him in particular, it was a case of style. It's hard to make Sora's chubby cheeks look intimidating, so they tried to color coordinate him in way that would make him look so without making too many major changes. Black hair+palish skin+bright sickly colored eyes is a good color combo for a villain, even for one modeled after Sora.

 

[The_Echo]

As for Roxas and Ven's appearance, this probably sounds weird, but I actually consider the in game models secondary canon to the hand drawn renders because Nomura draws them himself, so I think that's how he "truly imagens" them. The in game models are made by the other staff who interpret Nomura's work and while they mostly look the same, there are some key artistic differences here and there. One of them being Roxas and Ven's eyebrows. Roxas's eyebrows are only ever brown in game. If there's an in universe reason for it I'd go with him having a direct connection to Sora since he has brown hair. Otherwise, I think it's just so whomever is making the models can more easily tell them apart without making an overt difference. When making computer generated models, it's pretty common to make them naked first then layer the clothes on. Visually, it's easy to tell the difference between Roxas and Ven when they're dressed, but in the process of making their models I can imagine it can get tricky (though I suppose it doesn't matter much in the long run).

What Solosis posted earlier were renders, not models, and the minor differences are still there.

Beyond the eyebrows, I also notice Roxas' nose is softer than Ven's, which is more angular. The shape of Roxas' lips is also different, and his hair is more unkempt. And it may just be the perspective, but Roxas seems to have a thinner, more angular face.

And just now I've noticed that their eyes are different. The light-blue ring around the pupil is wider in Ven's eyes. Given how many things are different, I feel almost compelled to believe it's on purpose.

Now, if I were going to come up with an in-universe explanation, I'd say it's not so much some "connection" to Sora, but rather that Ventus' heart could only change Sora's body to a certain extent, possibly due to its dormant nature.

 

[Gram]

It's amusing how this shifted from Xions appearance to Roxas'.